Sandy buyout plan extended to upstate

Upstate areas affected by Lee and Irene will also be included in $400M block grant plans

Jimmy Vielkin, Times Union

By Jimmy Vielkind

Published 9:57 pm, Monday, February 4, 2013

Assemblyman Pete Lopez is flanked by fracking protestors during a discussion of a proposed gas pipeline in Schoharie County July 10, 2012 at a press conference at the Schoharie Valley Farm in Schoharie, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

ALBANY — The state's plan to use $400 million to buy out homeowners in flood plains devastated by Superstorm Sandy will extend to upstate residents affected by tropical storms Lee and Irene, state and federal officials said.

The money would be outside of a separate buyback program operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has received dozens of applications from flood-ravaged homeowners in the wake of the back-to-back 2011 storms. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, announced plans for a buyback program in his State of the State presentation last month. Details emerged after a meeting Friday between state and federal officials.

"There's huge demand," said Assemblyman Pete Lopez, R-Schoharie. "Many people are still suffering, and housing is a huge, unmet need. ... The challenge is that FEMA money is competitive, and many communities have not been able to get the funding they need."

Money for the buyback program will come from Community Development Block Grants, distributed with large discretion by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, an agency Cuomo once headed. Its current secretary, Shaun Donovan, was a former housing official in New York City, and has served as the Obama administration's point man for post-Sandy recovery efforts.

A bill approved last month by the U.S. Senate contained $16 billion in CDBG funds; Cuomo estimated the state would get over half of those funds, and a state official said officials were seeking $400 million for the program.

Stephanie Valle, a spokeswoman for Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, said he welcomed the inclusion of areas affected by the 2011 storms.

"When we were looking at the Sandy package in general, we were looking for ways the funding package could be broadened to include more recent disasters, including Irene and Lee," said Valle.

FEMA typically offers 75 percent of a property's value for a buyout, but state and federal officials said they were hoping the new program would offer pre-storm value. Fifty-four homeowners in Schoharie County had requested buyouts as of last year, but none have been finalized, Lopez said.

Valle said HUD has yet to formally solicit proposals for the new CDBG funds, but that she hoped a formal request for proposals would be published this week. New York — and other affected areas — would then submit their requests.

Members of a state Senate task force examining the response to and recovery from Sandy said they supported a buyback program, provided it was voluntary. The task force issued a 31-page preliminary report, but senators emphasized they were seeking common ground rather than advancing specific legislation.

"Almost from day one we've come together," said Sen. Andrew Lanza, R-Staten Island. "An obvious principle ... was funding for a buyout program in an area the governor described as belonging to Mother Nature."